Colt Case Ingersoll Garden Tractors

Your right about 7018. It produces a very smooth weld without all that spatter. Absolutely nothing like 6010 or 6011. Welding with a DC stick over an AC unit on steel will run smoother any day. I bought a cheap ebay "accurate tools brand" 3 in 1 DC inverter welder. Stick, tig and plasma a few years ago and has done everything I need. Had to take it on a road trip and do some welding up on some poles for a business sign.

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thebuildist wrote: ↑Tue Oct 25, 2022 8:27 am wait 'till you try 7018 on DC. You'll feel like you just graduated welding school.

The difference between 6011 and 7018 is amazing.

Bob

How do you store the 7018 so they don't go bad? I'd hate to use a few electrodes and throw out the rest.

The storage thing is overblown. If you're doing certified/x-rayed pipeline and such I'm sure it matters. And then it's all about moisture content, so you have to basically bake them before use.

But for normal stuff it doesn't matter. My first batch came with my old welder, and were at least 10 years old, and they all worked fine. Now I buy them 10lbs at a time and store them on the shelf. Not even sealed. Those 10lbs will last me... a year or so? And I've never had any go bad.

Bob

Eugen wrote: ↑Tue Oct 25, 2022 9:58 am

thebuildist wrote: ↑Tue Oct 25, 2022 8:27 am wait 'till you try 7018 on DC. You'll feel like you just graduated welding school.

The difference between 6011 and 7018 is amazing.

Bob

How do you store the 7018 so they don't go bad? I'd hate to use a few electrodes and throw out the rest.

Just high and dry . If no where to store where reasonably dry then , when needed take twice what you think you need spread out on old baking sheet and bake in oven at 200 F for half an hour .
I keep a bunch of rod in a pipe hung just below the radiant tube heater year round with no issues .

You guys are great! I'll get some then

I think you'll be fine storing your rod in the plastic case 5 or 10lbs comes in. I keep mine in rod storage tubes with rubber gaskets, but I buy 50lbs at a time. It comes in a sealed metal can, like a big square soup can. Once I open it I need a way to protect the rod on the job so I just fill a bunch of the tubes.

For keeping the E7018 electrodes dry I took an old electrical cabinet. Spot welded some short 1/4" round rods in it to hold shelves made from screening. I glued some foam on the inside of the box and installed a receptacle for a light bulb in the lower corner. The heat from the light bulb gives off enough heat to keep the flux dry. Every time I go to get some rods out of the box, which is not very often the light bulb is burnt out.

Keep the
Harry

I was forced to take some vacation days because we're not allowed to accumulate too many, so after tiling the garden and doing some other stuff, rain started and the littlest one went for the afternoon nap. Took advantage of the situation and visited the local Linde (now Messer) gases and welding shop. Going to this store is like I'm a kid in the candy shop. Chatted to the guy there for about 15 minutes and he said if I wanted a quality 7018 that's easy to use he recommends the ESAB OK 55.00, some electrodes made in Sweden. I told him I don't want any stinking Ikea rods just kidding, I said no such thing.

Got the smallest package they had, 10 lbs, for about $63. These were not the cheapest rods, and that is just fine.


He also gave me advice about the MIG gun liner and about replacing my B tanks of acetylene. The service in this shop is exemplary, a pleasure to shop there.



Back to the AC welder conversion. Having it tested successfully, it was time to do things right. Got some thermal paste yesterday from work because I could not find mine anymore (it's here, but where?!? ). Thermal paste goes between heat sink and device, to facilitate heat transfer away from the device, to the heatsink, which then dissipates it into the air. The trick about thermal paste is to put very very little, just enough as to have no tiny air pockets between the two surfaces. The way I do it is I rub it onto the surface as thin as I can using a finger, and then I rub the two devices together gently as to spread it as evenly as possible. If any grinding is felt, I put a tiny bit more paste, then rub the devices again, until it feels like the two surfaces slide softly against each other.


After that, the device got bolted on the heat sink, and connected back in the circuit, making sure it clears the sides of the enclosure.

Good work Eugen. That fan might provide enough air flow in the chassis to keep your diode bridge cool. The black anodizing on your heatsink helps radiate heat and you have the heatsink in the correct vertical orientation

I wonder how DC a DC welder is? Never thought to scope one. It would be interesting to see the difference between a "bought" DC welder and Eugen's. When welding aluminum, isn't there a bit of AC on top of the dc?